Hello! I’m Jessica and I loooove love love food! I love the taste of food. I love the way food fuels my body and can completely change the way I feel. I love how therapeutic it is to create meals. And I absolutely love feeding other people and teaching them how to feed themselves!
I specialize in plant-based aka vegan recipes. Although I like to indulge on occasion, the majority of my cooking is loaded with fruits and veggies and starches, is nutrient dense, and is easy to prepare.
MY STORY
Although I dabbled in cooking here and there in my teenage years, my true love for food started when I was 21 years old. Like many others, I grew up with your typical American diet. My parents always had plenty of fruit and vegetables available, but along with those we also had plenty of meat, dairy, and processed foods. Being an active teenager, the effects of this diet went mostly unnoticed. However, when I was in college and my eating habits became much more indulgent, the effect my diet was having on my weight, mood, and mind became strikingly obvious.
I SIMPLY DIDN’T FEEL GOOD ANYMORE!
So, being a good college student, I began to research ways to solve my problem. Luckily, I grew up with parents who instilled into me that dieting is unhealthy, unsustainable, and never the answer (thank goodness)…so I was able to breeze right past the zillions of crash diet options and ended up diving deep into the literature of plant-based eating.
Along with my own research, I met my first two vegans!…one of which was raw. I was able to pick their brains as well and could understand the moral aspects of veganism. I could see the energy they had and the good health they were in.
With all signs pointing to “yes”, I began a plant-based lifestyle.
Within months all of my excess weight melted off. I had waaaay more energy and my overall mood was incredibly enhanced. It should be noted that this was back in 2008 before all of the delicious vegan meat and dairy alternatives were available, which make it a little too easy to be a junk food vegan now lol.
Fast forward a decade and a half and my plant-rich diet is still going strong. With life’s many roads and challenges there have been periods where I have strayed slightly from plant-rich eating. However, when I do, all of the effects I felt during my early college years start to rear their ugly heads and I quickly reroute and clean up my act. I currently eat a plant-rich diet, but am not completely vegan. With my family life and responsibilities, I decided a mostly plant-based diet worked better for me at this time in my life. I am a HUGE believer of catering to your needs during each season of your life, and this is what works best for me right now. Olive You So Matcha is a 100% vegan / plant-based recipe blog because I am also a huge believer that the more fruits and vegetables on your plate the better!
At the end of the day, I want to help as many people as possible learn how to feed themselves and fall in love with fruits, veggies, legumes, grains, and the endless list of plant-based ingredients! So whether you are a vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, or carnivore…I am super happy you are here!
ON A PROFESSIONAL LEVEL
I have spent many years working with food professionally. Over the years, I have managed an organic cafe, managed an organic bar, built vegan menus for restaurants, and was even co-owner of a small, vegan Ice Cream company.
ON A PERSONAL LEVEL
I am a strong, outspoken woman, lover of life and mom of one badass little girl. Other than cooking, I spend most of my spare time with my daughter, Verona, my life partner, Gia, and Gia’s mom, Mely aka Lola, who resides with us. When we can, we do our best to take advantage of the days by exploring, creating, eating, and spending time outdoors…especially in the water.
In 2023, our little family went through a major change. We left our small apartment and moved into a home large enough to comfortably move Gia’s mom in with us. She is 83 years old, has dementia, and is an absolute gem of a human being. During this time I also left my job to come home and become a full time caregiver and family chef!
Now I spend most of my days at home, keeping Lola safe, fed, and happy…watching romcoms (Lola loves anything with a handsome man and romance)…listening to Nat King Cole (on repeat)…but mostly COOKING! Three meals a day, 7 days a week, rinse and repeat…phew! Although this has been A LOT of work, it has put me in a unique position to cook for 4 women with different needs…leading me to refine my skills and become SUPER creative and, best of all, effective at streamlining the process!
This blog has become my way of sharing all of this knowledge and creativity with the world!
Like I said above, I am cooking for 4 women with different needs. My daughter (who’s 11, although she has a refined palate for a child, has excellent taste and eats pretty much eats everything..she still loves kid friendly food and needs school lunch packed), myself (loves to eat mostly plant-based, absolutely LOVES food, but needs to be careful with what I eat because my body really holds onto food), Gia (who is incredibly busy…forgets to eat…and needs more calorie rich meals to keep on weight), and Lola (who is 83, needs meals to be soft, nutrient dense, low sodium, and low sugar). Because of this, you will find a large variety of recipes and ways of cooking on this site.
I am a HUGE believer of catering to your needs during each season of your life. There is not a one-size-fits-all way of eating. I am also a HUGE believer of eating a plant-rich diet. As far as I’m concerned, the more fruits and vegetables on your plate the better! Because of this, Olive You So Matcha is a 100% vegan / plant-based recipe blog. I love teaching people how to eat more plants and educating anyone that wants to learn about the delicious possibilities of plant-based ingredients.
So come on in, take a look around! Whether you are a hardcore vegan, someone who is looking to become a little more plant-based and are in need of a meatless Monday recipe, or a carnivore just looking to get a little more veg on your plate…there is something here for you!
